If you think of a single atom as a grain of sand, then a wavelength of visible light—which is a thousand times larger than ...

In 1867, Lord Kelvin imagined atoms as knots in the aether. The idea was soon disproven. Atoms turned out to be something ...

New device emits photons in telecom fiber band from the start, so it avoids a separate converter that can waste photons.

Confining and rotating extremely cold atoms or molecules within atomic “Ferris wheels” made from laser light could test ...

MIT researchers double the accuracy of optical atomic clocks by reducing quantum noise with an innovative laser technique.

Quantum information in superconducting processors is stored as low-energy microwave photons, but transmitting this information over long distances to build a quantum ...

Trapping ultracold atoms with laser light let researchers magnify and then image the wave functions of atoms that were previously too close together to look like anything but a blob ...

Real particles are lumps of energy that can be "seen" or detected by appropriate instruments; this feature is what makes them ...

Researchers at Fudan University have built the world’s first fully functional memory chip made from a material only a few ...

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Learn more. In 1927 ...

A couple of weeks back I posted an answer to a question from a Twitter follower’s child, who asked “How Strong Is Space?” That was fun, so here’s another kid-question answered, this one from my own ...